Noise suppressors or silencers for firearms, including rifles and handguns, have been used for reducing the sound signature and muzzle flash of a host firearm. For example, the sound or report generated upon firing the host firearm can provide an audible cue to the location of a shooter, and further can cause significant harm to the shooter's hearing, while muzzle flashes can be harmful to the user's night vision and likewise can provide a visual cue as to their location. Silencers or noise suppressors therefore have been developed to substantially reduce these concerns. Most silencers typically include a core, such as a monocore, i.e., a monolithic or solid piece of material with a series of cuts and/or holes defining baffles and passages for creation of turbulence in propulsion gases passing through the silencer or suppressor, or alternatively, a stackable baffle core having a series of stacked baffles. Such stacked baffle cores have been found to be particularly effective with the use of certain calibers, for example, .22 caliber firearms.
In assembling a stacked baffle core for silencers or suppressors, it generally is important to make sure the silencer baffles are each aligned in a desired or necessary rotational orientation. To this end, some prior baffle designs have included tabs and notches for alignment. A problem that has been found with such designs, however, is that the notches typically must be machined with a tolerance or clearance that allows for easy engagement with a corresponding tab, but such clearances also provide a pathway for carbon, unburned powder and other fouling elements carried with propellant gases to escape and enter the gap or clearance between the spacer elements and/or baffles and the inner diameter of the silencer body. This buildup of carbon and other materials must be cleaned frequently to ensure proper operation of the silencer or suppressor, but the buildup of such materials also becomes a substantial impediment to the removal of the baffles and spacers from the silencer tube or body for cleaning and/or routine maintenance, making it difficult to disassemble and disconnect the baffles and spacers from the silencer tube as needed.
Accordingly, it can be seen that a need exists for a silencer baffle assembly that addresses the foregoing and other related and unrelated problems in the art.